Jul 24, 2018

Engineers at MIT have designed tiny, new robots capable of sensing their
surroundings. The microbots, roughly the size of a human egg cell,
could be used to explore hard-to-reach passageways, like the human
intestines or a gas pipeline.
Scientists designed the tiny robots by coupling electric circuitry to
colloids, a mixture feating insoluble particles so small they never
settle in water or air. Colloid particles always remains dispersed.

Researchers have previously tried to turn small particles or molecules
into robots, but scientists have mostly focused their efforts on
improving the mobility of microbots. The team of engineers at MIT wanted
to make more functional microbots.

The new microbots' circuitry allows the cell-sized robots to sense their
surroundings, store data and compute basic tasks. A small photodiode
provides each bot's circuit with a tiny bit of electricity, enough to
sense the surrounding environment and record its observations.

Instead of using a traditional microchip, which need to be attached to
hard-bodied substrate, researchers developed a circuit out of thin,
flexible materials, like graphene. The circuits need only a tiny bit of
energy to perform. Their flexibility also allowed them to be attached to
colloid particles, which are subjected to a complex array of forces
when suspended in liquid or gas.

Researchers described their novel microbots -- the smallest capable of
sensing their surroundings -- this week in the journal Nature
Nanotechnology.

The robots could eventually be used to develop less invasive
colonoscopies. They could also be used to search for structural
vulnerabilities inside oil and gas pipelines.

Ultimately, scientists hope other researchers will improve upon their
methods and come up with new ways to utilize the robotics technology.

"We see this paper as the introduction of a new field [in robotics]," Strano said.
By Brooks Hays